It took Sean and I a good while to open up a savings account and actually be able to put money in it. Even now just because we have it doesn't mean there's always money in it. But at least it's there. We've thought of opening up another one at another bank so it wouldn't be so easy to have access to our money and then we'd put money in it for vacations and things like that. After looking at all of the different banks I've narrowed it down to Wamu and we just might open up a Savings Account there. I know a few people who have accounts there and love it.

Some of Wamu's benefits and features that we like are the fact that it's got free online banking. That is a must have these days! They also have free electronic statements. The one thing that might be hard for us is you have to have a minimum balance of $300 each day to avoid a monthly service charge of $40. But, if you open up an online savings account along with a Wamu Checking Account there is no monthly service charge as long as you keep both accounts open. That's got me thinking. We could do that too and make that checking account one for bills that we pay quarterly or maybe even just for our mortgage since that bill alone is huge.

Another nice option they provide is signing up for overdraft protection. With this, if you use more money then is in your checking, it automatically gets taken out of your savings to make sure it's there. And of course you also have easy access to your money by using ATM's.

Wamu seems like the way to go!